Profile

Alena Vranova is a business developer who is the founder and former CEO of SatoshiLabs. SatoshiLabs is a blockchain innovation company that created CoinMap.Org – the first bitcoin map. The innovative organization was also behind Slushpool.com, which has the distinction of being the very first bitcoin mining pool. Unfortunately, in the early going, Slush lost a significant portion of their bitcoin to hackers and third parties. This was one of the issues that lead to Villanova’s company to create Trezor, the original hardware wallet.

In early 2017, Alena Vranova stepped down from her position as SatoshiLabs Chief Executive Officer, to pursue other interests.

The fact that Vranova was fortunate enough be in the crypto space very early has provided her with the opportunity to do pro-bono advisory work. She currently does this as a way to give back to the community.

Moreover, she recently established a foundation called Khodam et Bloom. This new organization, which is both a charitable and commercial entity, aims finance research in the crypto space and support women in fintech.

As an innovator who is looking to give back, Alena Vranova is a pillar of the blockchain community.

Quotable

“In 2010, I went back to university to study diplomacy and & international economic relations. In my research, I found out about Bitcoin, and my mind was blown. I had no idea how it worked, or what the blockchain was, but I understood the philosophy behind it. I was fortunate enough to be living in Prague in 2011 when the first Bitcoin conference happened in 2011 and met my two future co-founders. Two years later in 2013, I decided to leave my job as head of sales at an insurance company and joined Satoshi Labs. I think this was still one of the best decisions of my life.”

Fun Fact

Vranova is what’s known as a polyglot. This means she speaks seven different languages!

Check out other people making big waves in helping progress these incredible technologies in our series Moving the Chain, and for more awesome articles by Jacques Martin, check ’em out here!